By Safaa Abdoun
CAIRO: Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq accepted the resignation of three editors-in-chief of state-run publications, and referred them to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces which will have the final say on the issue, according to Madgy Rady, the official spokesman of the Cabinet of Ministers.
Shafiq has accepted the resignation of Mohamed Ali Ibrahim, editor-in-chief of Gomhuria newspaper, Ali Hashem, editor-in-chief of the Egyptian Gazette, and Abdel Qadir Shoheib, head of Dar El Hilal Publishing House.
Earlier this week, three members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces called on the editors-in-chief and heads of the board of state-owned newspapers to resign, during the primetime show Al-Ashera Masa’n on Monday night.
In response to mounting criticism of state-run newspapers’ misleading coverage of the 18-day demonstrations that ousted president Hosni Mubarak, the three army generals suggested these editors resign since they would eventually be removed.
Journalists at state-run newspapers held a protest last Sunday at the Journalists’ Syndicate demanding the resignation of their editors-in-chief.
Journalists’ Syndicate Chairman Makram Mohamed Ahmed resigned Tuesday responding to calls by hundreds of journalists.
“Ahmed should have resigned at the time when [President Hosni] Mubarak stepped down as he is part of the former regime,” journalist and political analyst Diaa Rashwan told Daily News Egypt.
